Female candidate stands alone in Kabul election battle

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In her modest campaign office in the Dan-e-Bagh area in central
Kabul, which is also her home, Shahla Ata talks of peace and
hope.

But in a country rife with corruption and backroom deals, even
here everything is not as it seems.

Today 12.5 million Afghans go to the polls in the first
parliamentary elections in three decades, amid threats of violence
from anti-government forces and claims of intimidation and bribery.
Three police officers were reportedly killed in the south of Kabul
yesterday.

Voters have been offered everything from sacks of flour, to
mobile phones and cars in return for votes.

Bribery and corruption seem a long way from Ms Ata's campaign
office. Simply furnished, there is a picture of the 38-year-old
meeting President Hamid Karzai.

There is also a black-and-white picture of former Afghan
president Sardar Mohammad Daoud Khan, a relative.

Ms Ata is in Kabul alone - her three daughters live in the
United States, her former home, and her husband was killed in the
factional fighting.

You won't see her face splashed on huge billboards around Kabul
like those of some candidates who have spent tens of thousands of
US dollars on their campaign. Instead she had been speaking to
people all over Kabul province, she said.

Ms Ata nominated herself for office (and will vote for herself
today) because she loved her country, she said. Female candidates
in other provinces have been threatened but it has not been a
problem for Ms Ata.

She comes across as honest and forthright, talks passionately
about improving basic services for poor people and is quick to
admit the process has shortcomings.

Have things improved in the last three years? Yes. Is Karzai to
blame for the slow pace of progress. No, he can't do it all on his
own. Is there corruption? Yes.

Will it change after the elections? I hope so.

But there are still questions which are difficult to answer. One
such issue is the power held by mujahideen commanders.

"The commanders, they have a lot of money. You can see the
posters, you know. That's the proof. I don't want to say
anything."

After a question about the Taliban, she smiles, takes a deep
breath and bites her lip. But she still answers that the Afghan
enemy, including the Taliban, are all finished.

She said a report by international agencies that a parliamentary
candidate was killed by the Taliban when he was actually killed by
his brother.

To leave on a conciliatory note, I ask if she will be
elected.

"Insha'allah, yes."

But after we leave my translator tells me a man in the room had
asked her what she had been saying about the Taliban (she had
answered in English). This same man, whom I was not introduced to
formally, tried to intimidate my translator by asking him if he
knew the head of the Afghan intelligence service.

So it seems even at the "poor" end of the election things are
not quite as they seem.